


The Falling Out

by Blairdiggory



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-31 02:24:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6451777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blairdiggory/pseuds/Blairdiggory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How Mr. Spender and Dr. Zarei became friends, and what eventually tore them apart</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Falling Out

Rick always had his nose in a book. So did Mina. So when they met as kids in the town of Mayview, it was no surprise that they bonded over novels.  
At recess in elementary school, they were always the kids sitting on the outskirts of the playground, each with a book two inches from their faces.   
“Rick!” A teacher called. “Mina! Why aren’t you two playing with the others?”  
“I want to read instead,” said Rick.   
“The other kids already have friends to play with,” said Mina.   
They tried to go back to their books, but the teacher walked over and hovered over them.   
“You two need to get some exercise.” She traded Rick a dodgeball for his book, then looked over at Mina who reluctantly gave hers up as well. The teacher looked at the titles.   
“Funny, you two are both reading mysteries. Now, go play with everyone else.”  
“But they’re already doing stuff!” Rick whined.   
“Then go join them.”  
“What if they don’t want me to join them?”  
“Then play with Mina.”  
“But she’s a girl!” Rick protested at once.   
“But he’s a boy!” Mina said at the same time.   
“You two have more in common than you think. Why don’t you talk about the books you were reading?”  
She gave each of them a pointed look, then walked over to chat with the other teachers. Rick bounced the ball a few times, then looked up at Mina, who was looking at the ground.  
“So, um… what type of books do you like?” Rick asked. He was too afraid to disobey his teacher. Mina looked like she didn’t want to do this, but without a book, she had nothing to do.  
“I like Nancy Drew.”  
“What’s that?”  
“She’s this girl, and she solves mysteries.”  
“Oh. Cool. I like the Hardy Boys. They solve mysteries, too.”  
“Oh. Cool.”  
The two stood around some more. Some girls had noticed them started making kissy faces at them. Mina blushed.   
“I’m gonna wait to go on the swings,” she said.   
“Yeah, ok.”  
A dodgeball rolled over to them from the field. A boy who was about a head taller than Rick came to pick it up and smirked when he saw them.   
“Are you two dating, Rick? Are you gonna kiss her?” He said.   
“Ew, no way, she’s gross,” Rick said. Mina looked down again and played with her hands.   
“Aw, you hurt her feelings!” The boy said. Then, before either of them realized what had happened, the boy ripped off Mina’s scarf and tore off with it.  
“Hey, look! I’m Mina, and I wanna kiss Rick!” The boy put the scarf over his head, laughing. Mina started crying, covering her head, and hunched down into a ball on the ground.   
“Give it back!” Rick said. He didn’t know why the scarf was important, but what the boy was doing was bad, and he had to do something.   
“Or else what? You’ll tell the teacher?”  
“Yeah, I will!”  
The boy stuck out his tongue, but he hesitated.   
“I don’t care. It’s just a scarf, anyway. She should stop being a baby about it.”  
“GIVE IT BACK!” Rick screamed, loud enough to get the attention of the teachers, who looked over. One of them started walking towards them.   
“Gosh, it’s just a scarf,” the kid said, but he gave the scarf to Rick and ran off before the teacher could catch him. Rick got down on the ground at Mina’s level and held out her scarf to her. She grabbed it quickly.   
“Don’t look,” she said as she began putting it on. Rick looked away as the teacher strode over to them.  
“Are you two alright?” The teacher asked when she came over. “Mina, are you ok? Why are you crying?”  
Mina shook her head, so Rick spoke up. “I don’t know his name, but that kid over there took her scarf, and I told him to give it back.”  
The teacher’s mouth became a tight line.   
“I’ll talk to him. Are you ok now, Mina? Do you want me to call your parents?”  
Mina shook her head again. She was looking at Rick, but looked away when he glanced at her.   
“Ok, you two go play ball while I talk to the boy, alright?” The duo nodded, and the teacher walked off. Mina glanced up at Rick again.   
“Thank you,” she said.  
“You’re welcome,” Rick said. He wanted to make Mina feel better. “Do you want to play ball?”  
Mina shook her head.  
“Do you want to… talk about books?”  
Mina sniffed. “Uh, yeah, sure. What’s your book about?”  
They talked until the bell rang for recess to end, then kept talking to each other every recess after that. They were the first boy-girl friends in their grade, and they became inseparable.

“RICK!” Mina screamed as the boy plunged into the water. As teenagers, they were fighting a pair of hawk-like spirits. Before she could dive into the lake after him, one of the spirits lifted her scarf over her eyes, knocking off her glasses, her tool. The second one grabbed the glasses and flew off, trying to break them.  
“PATCHWORM!” She cried trying to go into her spirit world, but by the time she was able to get to her feet, the spirits were too high above her for her to form a connection. Mina couldn’t see. She could hear Rick sputtering in the water. If only he hadn’t gone off in search of the spirits alone! Mina thought. It was his own fault. He’d gotten some kind of complex in recent years, believing that only he could save himself and that he didn’t need anyone’s help. This had strained their relationship, but they always had each others backs. And now, Mina was useless to him.   
Without warning, a beam of light took over her blurry vision. She heard clanking and squeaking, like rusty hinges. The hawk-like spirits dove for the light, two dark spots amid the brightness but were swiftly taken down by whatever entity had entered the fray. She felt something thump a couple feet from her and scrambled to find her glasses.  
Finally able to see, Mina was able to make out a figure amid the light, something with arms. It suddenly dropped towards the lake and yanked out a sputtering, cold Rick Spender.   
Mina could’ve cried with relief, but the spirit that was carrying Rick wasn’t strong enough to get him completely to shore. She ran into the lake until she was thigh-deep and helped pull the boy to the beach. The spirit’s light was waning to a glow so that she could make out an eye and a mouth inside what looked like an old lamp. The mouth started speaking.   
“Quit gawking at me, girl, and help your friend!”  
Mina turned back to Rick, furious at herself for getting distracted. Patchwork sucked her into her spirit world, and she analyzed her friend.  
“Nothing broken,” Patchworm said. “He’s cold. Get him someplace warm.”  
Mina came back to reality and shook Rick, who proceeded to vomit lake water. Mina helped him to his feet. Rick’s shivering was unbearable.   
“Can your light warm him up?” Mina asked the spirit.   
The light spirit shone brighter, making Mina feel unbearably hot, but it was worth it to get Rick safe. They had to get him back to his house.   
“Can you come with us?” She asked.  
“Of course,” the spirit said. They walked along the backroads to the Spender house in order to avoid anyone out at this time of night. Once Rick finally came to his senses, the spirit began to speak to him.   
“Hello, Richard,” he said. “Do you remember me?”  
“Lucifer,” Rick whispered. Mina tensed.  
“Relax, dear girl, I am not literally Satan. Now, Richard, I’ve come to ask about my proposal. After tonight, I think it would be for the best if we teamed up.”  
“What?” Mina asked. “Rick, you’re going to get another spirit? After what happened last year? You can’t possibly hold another with something that dangerous with you-”  
“Lucifer is going to help me contain it, Mina. Don’t worry,” Rick said. “Lucifer, I acc-”  
“Wait!” Mina stopped walking. Rick stumbled on his soggy sneakers.   
“You can’t just- I mean- Rick, do you understand how dangerous this is? What this spirit’s asking you to do?”   
“Yes, Mina, I do.”  
“I assure you,” Lucifer said. “I mean no harm. Similar to your spirit, I simply want to help. This thing is dangerous, and I believe I may be of value-”  
“Rick, I’ve told you so many times that I want to help you. Why can this spirit just come in and-”  
“He saved me, Mina. Back off,” Rick said. Now that his teeth weren’t chattering, he sounded bolder.   
“I SAVED YOU TOO!” Mina screamed. “IF IT WEREN’T FOR ME, THAT BIRD-SPIRIT WOULD HAVE DROPPED YOU FROM A HEIGHT THAT WOULD HAVE KILLED YOU! WHY DON’T YOU JUST ACCEPT THE HELP YOU NEED-”  
“You can’t help me, Mina!” Rick yelled back. “You can’t contain this thing any better than I can! How exactly do you want to help me?”  
Before Mina could speak, Rick shook his head and stepped away from her.   
“Lucifer can actually help me. That’s why we’re going to be partners-”  
“And what about me?” Mina said. “We’ve fought together for three years-”  
“And we can still fight together!”  
“And yet, you left without me tonight.”  
“I didn’t need help.”  
“Yeah? Clearly, you did. You would have died.”  
“We have to be ready to fight these things on our own at some point.”  
“But right now, we’re a team. You don’t need to do everything on your own.”  
“And you don’t need to do everything with me. God, this is just like elementary school all over again.”  
“Excuse me?!” Mina balked.  
“If it weren’t for me, you’d still be a quivering mess when anything like this came up,” Rick spat back.  
“You’re not responsible for who I am today.”  
“Aren’t I?” Rick paused while Mina gaped at him.   
“Look, I’m just getting ready for the real world, Mina. I need to do some things on my own. And if you can’t understand that-”  
“I can’t understand that. Sometimes you actually need help, and you’re pushing away the people who can give that to you. And I’m not going to let myself worry about someone who keeps refusing the help I’m offering. You’ll need me again one day, Rick, and I’ll be there, but for now, you’re on your own.”  
Mina turned heel and walked the other way. When she was out of sight, Lucifer faced Rick.  
“She’s right, you know. You’ll need help at some point whether you like it or not.”  
Rick grimaced.   
“Are we becoming a team or not?”  
“If you accept my proposal, then yes.”  
“I accept it. Let’s go home and talk strategy.”   
The once inseparable friends had turned their separate ways, and the choices they’d need to make on their own may have destroyed them


End file.
